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Chatting about Paris with Rudy Maxa, aka "The Savvy Traveler"

When you're an expat, you tend to fly a lot. It comes with the territory. So does trying to find the cheapest way to get from point A to point B. Enter Rudy Maxa, whose travel advice my mother quoted whenever I told her that I was getting ready to book our family's annual home leave tickets. Without fail, she would share helpful bits of information gleaned from Rudy's NPR radio program, "The Savvy Traveler". Thanks to his astute advice, we must have saved a small fortune on round-the-world flights while living in Asia and the Caribbean.

But since my mother only ever reverentially referred to Rudy as "The Savvy Traveler", I never knew his real name. At least not until early last week when I received an email from his executive producer Janet de AcevedoMacdonald asking if I would appear on "Rudy Maxa's World" to chat about Paris's new campaign to be friendlier to tourists. When I read Rudy's bio and realized that he's "The Savvy Traveler", my first thought was that there was no way that I would be able to work up to the courage to talk with my mother's travel guru. Fearful that I would stammer, stutter and make a complete fool out of myself on the most widely listened-to travel radio show in the USA, I was ready to say "thanks, but no thanks".

Yet there was one part of my brain that kept telling me that I should at least try. After all, Rudy currently lives in Minnesota, which is my mother's home state. Like me, he's a Midwesterner. We tend to be friendly people. And most importantly, my mother would have been thrilled to know that I had the opportunity to chat with her favorite travel radio show host.

Banishing Stéphane from the apartment a couple of minutes before I received the anticipated call from the show's sound engineer last Saturday evening, I reminded myself to relax. After all, my mom always enjoyed Rudy's company. I did, too!

Comments

Hi MKEven though I gave up on Facebook a while back, with the link to your Facebook pics you can actually view the comments that are associated with the pics. I saw Rudy's pic before your blog came up, figuring I was not a cat, my curiosity would not kill me, I proceeded to find out what was behind a rather "odd" picture amongst your collection. Susan and I then listened to the podcast - there was not sign you being nervous...in you great interview, and being invited back...WOW + now I have another travel site to visit. Cheers from the hot, 35C, Okanagan.

Haven't listened to the podcast yet, but am anxious to. You're a star! I'll have to look up some of his advice, we are expats too and any money saved on travel is nice. My husband was born in Albert Lea, MN. What town does your mom live in? Sooo many midwesterners are expats!

For some reason, I haven't met too many expats from the Midwest in Paris. I always feel like the odd woman out among all the people from NYC and CA. I never have anything to add when they start raving about their favorite restaurants and watering holes back home.

My mom was from St. Paul and very proud of it until the day she died. I've always said that good people come from MN!

If you're planning to go back to the States in the Fall, Air France had some really good prices. I got a ticket to Boston for 578 euros! You can sign up for fare alerts on Kayak so that they send an email when the prices drop for your preferred destinations.

It's great that you already had the opportunity to make the science podcast. They're still a new concept for me. Sara keeps telling me how much she likes downloading them to listen to while she works. It's something that I should do for when I'm riding on the metro.

Thank you! It was very strange hearing myself. I kept asking Stéphane if that's what I really sound like and he said that he could tell that I was nervous. But then he reassured me that it's only because he knows me so well.

You must be looking forward to your upcoming visit with Gwan! I hope that the weather stays nice for you.

Thanks, Gwan! It's not something I ever thought I would do. I guess it just goes to show that we never know what life has in store for us. Speaking of which, I wonder what you'll be revealing on your blog?!?!!